Amplifying the Perspectives of Program Participants for Impact Assessments - IAIA22

Capturing local voices and perspectives is critical for project success. But it's not always easy to do in remote rural communities where people speak local languages. The Amplio Talking Book offers a unique ability to capture user feedback in the voices and words of program participants. In a presentation at IAIA22, Lisa Zook — Amplio's monitoring, evaluation, and learning advisor — shared the work that Amplio is doing to amplify the perspectives of participants in Talking Book projects. Lisa spoke about Amplio’s impact assessment methodologies in the context of a project implemented in partnership with Ghana Health Service and UNICEF in the Upper West Region. Community health workers used the Amplio Talking Book to strengthen health education through the delivery of consistent and accurate health messages. The project helped to generate demand for rural health services and build capacity for community health nurses and volunteers. In 6 months, Talking Books collected over 1,200 user feedback messages from program participants, on a wide range of topics. Amplio created a new system to process and analyze these local language recordings, providing a valuable source of qualitative data. Through user feedback, Amplio and its Talking Book partners can identify issues and trends, gain a deeper understanding of those they serve, support local solutions, and make data-informed decisions for greater impact. IAIA22 was organized by the International Association for Impact Assessment. To learn more about Amplio Talking Books, visit www.amplio.org.